Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Gen Con.The Best
Four Days in Gaming.They ain’t just
whistlin’ Dixie.J

So here is my perfunctory Gen Con post.

Day 0 (Wednesday):

Woke up entirely too early to catch my flight.Slept on the plane.Arrived in Indy and took a limo to the
hotel.(They really aren’t that much
more than a cab from the airport).Ate
some lunch.Unpacked.Gave a small tour of the area to my friend
who had never been to Gen Con before.Got my badge and tickets. Helped
my other friends set up their booth.Waited a long time to get seated for dinner at Weber Grill, but the
yummy food was yummy and we had a big group.Went to sleep.

Day 1 (Thursday):

Got up early to line up for early VIG access to the Dealer
Hall.Went straight to Three Geeks and aNeedle, where I bought a Tardis bag similar to the one shown below.My most expensive purchase of the trip, and I
love every fiber.Walked around for
about 20 minutes before leaving to go to my 10am game of Cthulhutech.Still love that system, and I will run a game
in it someday.Went to an okay seminar
on “Better Adventures” which mostly was stuff I knew already.Sat down for a bit in the VIG lounge.Went to my 4pm Game of Thrones game, which
was a short adventure to familiarize one with the system.I had never played GoT before, and I did like
the system.But really I think it was
more my (and the other players’ and GM’s) enthusiasm for the series of books
and shows that made me want to play.I
could see setting a campaign in that world without necessarily using that
system.Got some dinner.

It's not actually bigger on the inside.

Then enter Fiasco game #1, using the Gangster London playset
at Games on Demand.First of all, our
organizer/pseudo-GM Travis was most excellent.Second of all, we had a complete blast.I laughed more in that 2 -2.5 hours than at any other point I’ve ever
gamed, period.Third, all of the players
were first-timers who really put their all into it.Fourth, the creator Jason Morningstar was
running a game at the next table, and I still felt like our table was the best
place to be – that’s saying something!It was a blast – and as you will see I played it a bit more over the
weekend.

Afterward, I tried out some Sentinels of the Multiverse card
game, which is basically comic book heroes brought to life.It was fun, but I was tired and left about
halfway through the game.

Day 2 (Friday):

Woke up and took my turn working the ENnies booth.I think most of the traffic that came by
stopped because there were two non-intimidating women at the booth who seemed
friendly, but there were a couple of people genuinely interested in the
nominees.Then I played some Eclipse
Phase, another system I adore.I will
run that someday too.Afterward I went
to a seminar about novel writing, which had valuable information about setting
up your novel, but wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be.Still good though.And then it was getting ready and going to
the ENnies.It was a lot more fun after
the judges’ announced their spotlight awards, because up to that point I was
nervous.Afterward, I went and played
some Cards Against Humanity with a friend & his friends, then off to sleep.Also, this was the day the Star Wars RPG was
announced, and one of my friends snagged me a copy (yay!).

Day 3 (Saturday):

Woke up and spent an hour in the dealer hall before playing
Giant Seafarers of Catan, during which I may have stood in line to meet Wil
Wheaton.I hadn’t ever played seafarers,
and I did a bad job of selecting locations appropriately.However, I love Catan even when I’m losing
badly, so it was fun.And the details of
the Giant Tiles was great.Then I had
some lunch, talked to some friends, and went to the ENnies judges panel, which
had essentially no attendees.It was the
first year to try it, and I don’t anticipate that it will ever be held
again.However, it was a nice time to
chat with the other judges and gain a sense of closure on judging.Afterward, I took a nap and then woke up to
eat some dinner and then go to True Dungeon, which was awesome.The draco-lich at the end looked like the
cover of the Neverwinter Nights campaign book come to life – and the new
location inside the ICC was really atmospheric.Then played game #2 of Fiasco with friends, using the Vegas
playset.It was a late night!

Day 4 (Sunday):

Slept in.Packed up,
checked out of hotel.Went to Games on
Demand.Thought about playing
Hollowpoint, but ended up playing game #3 of Fiasco, using “At Regina’s Wedding”
playset.The first game was still the
best, but I had fun all three times.Afterward,
spent a bit more time in the dealer hall, made a couple of purchases (fate
dice, Dragon Age Set 1, an Eclipse Phase dice bag, and some normal dice –
nothing too crazy or spendy).Then it
was lunch/dinner at the Ram – yum – and then off to catch the plane home.

I spent most of Monday asleep, which was lovely. And now back to reality. :(

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

My responsibilities for the 2012 ENnies have concluded.The ceremony happened on Friday, 8/17.Congratulations to ALL the winners – you can
find the complete list here: 2012 ENnie award winners

Being a part of this process was very rewarding, to say the
least.Attending the ceremony as a judge
felt great.I was genuinely thrilled for
all the winners, and not knowing which products won before-hand made for a very
exciting evening.

Among the winners, I was probably *most* excited for
Gaming As Women,Masks: 1,000 Memorable NPCs for Any Roleplaying Game, and
Stealing Cthulhu.Gaming as Women is a blog
written by a collection of women about their experiences, good and bad, in the
gamer community.Though I can’t relate
to everything they post, I am happy in the knowledge that there is a place to
discuss any issues openly and honestly.Masks is a product I will be using for the rest of my gaming
career.It is full of rich NPCs that
would add depth to any encounter, session or campaign in any system.And Stealing Cthulhu provides new ways to
incorporate Cthulhu into your campaigns.They are all worthy of their wins.

Now, to highlight a few other products.

As a judge, I was given the privilege of awarding a Judge’s
Spotlight ENnie award.My choice is Edge
by Outrider Studios:http://www.edgerpg.com/.

[gush/]I absolutely,
positively love the world that was created for Edge.There are beings with preternatural powers that
humans call “angels” and “demons,” though they are not exactly as we think of
them here on Earth.These angels and
demons exert power and influence over humans, and they are diametrically
opposed to one another – and compelled to destroy their counterparts.This leads to conflict, and occasionally
full-scale war.There are Edgemasters,
who are magically powerful warriors, Dreamweavers, who are able to bring ideas
to life, and Chosen, who are soldiers bound to Angels or Demons.The game uses the Rapidfire system, which
encourages quick combat and more roleplaying.

On another level, as much as I love-love-love this game, I
want to point out that it treats women very well.What do I mean by that?Looking through the book, there is very little
exploitative art (ie, women are fully clothed, and there is little cleavage to
be found).There are two badass
characters in the historical timeline, Rowan (a man) and Camille (a
woman).It is a welcome change.

There are also some
products that I would have loved to have seen nominated but didn’t quite make
the cut (there was some fierce competition!).

The Faerie Ring:Red Jack – this is a very clever little
supplement for Pathfinder.It is the
second installment of six in Along the Twisting Way, and provides a rich
backstory for an adversary that could pop up in any campaign.I will be searching out the other five
installments.http://zombieskypress.com/pathfinder/the-faerie-ring-red-jack/

All in all, I was very
excited for all the nominees, and happy for the winners as well.Though I may have my personal preferences, I
felt very proud at the ENnies ceremony about the high standard of quality in
roleplaying games over the last year.Can’t wait to see what next year holds!

Monday, July 16, 2012

Nominees have been announced! So now I can talk freely without breaking any
rules, right?

Well, to some degree, yes.
I’m not going to disclose information about an individual judge’s likes or
dislikes. (At GenCon, there is a Ennies
Judge Panel – feel free to come out and ask us all pointed questions there!)

Now that the judging portion of the program is done, where
do the Ennies stand? Well, judges have
selected the nominees for the Ennies.
However, the public (you!) actually decides who the winners are. Everyone gets to vote among the nominees – so
the judges are just as curious about who will win as the rest of the gaming
public! (Voting starts this Friday, July 20).

First off, let me address some of the commentary I’ve seen
on the nominations.

I am quite pleased with the nominations. The final list reflects the collaborative
process that the judges went through – no individual judge had all of these
nominated products on his or her list.
But, all of us are satisfied with the list on the whole. Would I change anything on the list of
nominees? Yes, there are a couple of
changes I personally would make to the list, but that is due to my taste. The reason there is a judging panel is so
that the nominees represent a spectrum of gamers’ opinions, rather than
anyone’s individual taste.

There has been some drama around the Best Free Product
nominations, with some individuals feeling that the list of nominees is
questionable. Specifically, the
complaint I’ve seen is that most of the nominees are not games in and of
themselves, but rather products that require additional purchases to use. (For example – We Be Goblins! is a free
Pathfinder module, but it benefits from having the Pathfinder core rule book,
which is not free.) The judges were evaluating
quality of work – not what sort of product was submitted. I think this variation in product is what
creates gamer frustration. “Why didn’t
my game get nominated, when it’s a full game, and you nominated something that
is just an adventure” questions inevitably lead to the not-so-popular
answer: because collectively the judges
felt the 12 page adventure was of higher quality. Not comforting, but there you have it.

Another interesting point I’ve seen floating around the web
is that “the judges are clearly fans of <insert publisher / system
here>.” Nope. In fact, without going into detail, the five
judges have somewhat different gaming palates.
For myself, I will say that I tend to be more interested in “fluff” –
that is, setting or characterizations or things related to role-playing. A couple of the other judges are more
interested in rules or “crunch,” and then the other two I would characterize as
hybrids – interested in both. As for
systems, we each have systems we like, and systems we don’t particularly care
for. But none of that was as important
as the quality of individual products.
Pelgrane Press, Wizards of the Coast and Paizo products received the
most nominations because we respected the quality of their products. The quality of the work speaks for itself,
regardless of the system.

Overall, my response to all of these sorts of questions has
been and will continue to be -- run for Ennies judge yourself! Obviously you’re passionate about
gaming. If you don’t agree with the nominations,
the only way to change them is to participate in the process! It’s not the reason I myself ran for judge,
but that doesn’t mean it can’t be yours.

Also, I’m sure we will discuss all this and more at the
Ennies Judging Panel at GenCon, Saturday afternoon at 2pm.
judges panel info

Moving on…

Though I heartily congratulate all nominees, I would like to
highlight a couple of particular products that were nominated. (After the Ennies awards, I plan to do this
with a couple of products that were not
nominated, but I can’t go giving away my judge’s pick just yet!) All comments below are simply my opinions,
and not meant to detract from the worthiness of other nominees.

This is a supplement to the Dragon Age RPG. It is a dark fantasy setting, and if you
enjoy the Dragon Age video games, then you will most likely enjoy the RPG. This supplement did a great job at
re-invigorating the fan base of the Dragon Age RPG after the lackluster
fan-reception for the Dragon Age II video game (which I happened to enjoy).

This is a supplement for Eclipse Phase. The Eclipse Phase team consistently produces
some of the most well-written books in the RPG industry. The hard-core Sci-Fi setting may not be
everyone’s cup of tea (I’m looking at you, fantasy fans), but if you want to be
inspired by high quality work, look no further.
(Plus, the pdf is only $10!)

Want some more sleuthing in your fantasy campaign? This book has you covered. A well-designed way to add some spice to a
Pathfinder campaign – or a way to set a mystery in a fantasy world – this is a
clever combination that should serve GMs and players well.

This adventure scared me.
I have not done much horror role-playing, but this adventure was one of
the handful I wished I had played before reading, so that I could experience
that fear as a player. Maybe one day I’ll
run it for others. Definitely
creep-tastic.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Have you ever been a part of a book club? Where you read a book, and then meet to
discuss the book? Maybe one book a
month? Or remember in college or high
school when your entire class read a book, and then would discuss in class what
you thought of the book and so forth?

Well, judging for the Ennies is not quite like that.

First, the scale is such that there is no way we could
discuss every single submission in detail.
We received 366 submissions – most of which were books that arrived at
my doorstep and probably made my mail carrier and UPS driver cry a lot. There were a lot of e-submissions as well,
which arrived in PDF format (searchable – yay!). And then there were podcasts to download,
websites to peruse, and the occasional piece of software.

Second, the judges for the Ennies do not meet like you would
with a book club or a class. I have yet
to meet any of the others in person, for one thing. For another, the vast majority of our year
was spent in solitary efforts to read and form opinions about submissions. It was punctuated with the occasional email with
questions or comments. But 95% of the
effort involved is individual and self-motivated.

The Ennies organizers let the judges be – aside from
answering the occasional question or helping with problems – to maintain the
independence of the judges. We had an
agreed-upon deadline to provide our list of nominations to them, but they in no
way stepped in to shape our opinions.

So what does all of this mean? It means the vast majority of my judging
duties was sitting in a quiet place, reading reading reading. I would use my lunch hours at work to
read. I would read on the weekends. Not every day, but in May and June pretty
darn close to it.

We kept a spreadsheet where each judge could note his or her
personal candidates for nomination in each category. I changed mine frequently, as I read more
things. I would revisit items another
judge ranked highly but I hadn’t cared for particularly. It was an ever shifting process.

Occasionally, I would have to remind myself that the Ennies
were not about what my “favorite” products were, but what the “best” products
were. It didn’t happen too often, but
there are still a couple of products that I loved that didn’t make the cut for
other judges. And that’s okay.

So … after lots of preparation and re-evaluation, the actual
judging process went fairly smoothly. It
consisted of the judges in a Google Hangout, looking over the list of items
each judge would put forward for nomination.
There were many products that overlapped between judges, and that made
selection easy. But once past those
initial items, we would essentially debate amongst ourselves – very respectfully
and politely I might add – what deserved to be nominated. It took a few hours, and then after further
consideration in the following days we changed two of the 100ish nominations. It sounds simple because it was simple. There were some categories where a judge or
two would have very strong opinions, and then other judges had strong opinions in other categories. It worked
out because we were all prepared, we listened to each other, and we kept
emotions out of it for the most part.

That in and of itself was a revelation to me. I had been anxious about the judging process
because I didn’t know the other judges (you can’t read tone into emails), and I
didn’t know how being the only girl on the panel would go. What I learned was that the judging process
in and of itself was all about building consensus. It was almost like a group of five people
mediating themselves. I will give you a (fake)
example. Say, judges 1-3 really liked
Book Lasagna, but judges 4-5 really liked Book Enchiladas. Well, perhaps the negotiated result of that
conflict would be nominating Book Lasagna in this particular category, but
recognizing that Book Enchiladas was also a quality product by putting it on
the short list for nominee discussion in a different category that would be
discussed a bit later. It worked out
rather well.

So after a few hours, we had a list of nominations. We slept on it, and further refined a couple
of nominations, but all in all we are very satisfied with our decisions.

Ennies nominations will be announced July 13, after which I
will give you some details to chew on (though not gossipy who-liked-what stuff –
just my opinions or products I want to highlight).

Thursday, July 5, 2012

This year, I had the unique opportunity to judge for the
Ennies. What are the Ennies? Well, short-version, they are awards to
Role-Playing Game related products that are given annually at Gen Con.

Anyone can run to be a judge, and judges are elected for one
year by the same fans voting on the awards.
The judges’ job is then to read / view all entries and select the
nominations for the Ennies. Those
nominations are then put to fan vote, which decides the winners.

So, long story short (too late), I have had over 300
books/websites/podcasts/etc to read and evaluate since Gen Con of last
year. The vast majority of submissions
were received in April and May, so I’ve been a bit busy!

Though at times I felt overwhelmed by this process (and had
the resultant whining to my friends), overall it has been very gratifying. I wanted to share some things with you, and
also document them for myself.

So why did I get involved in judging?

First, my main goal in this process was to learn more about
Role Playing Games. I play and enjoy
them. I like GMing. But I don’t have a breadth of knowledge about
the games available. Most of my
experience has been with systems that my friends know and enjoy playing. And there is nothing wrong with that. But I like to learn, and I wanted to educate
myself about other systems and basically come to a more holistic understanding
and appreciation for the industry.

Second, I really enjoy reading. I wanted to see what inspired me about
different worlds and settings. I wanted
to learn more about myself through discovering what I gravitated to. I hoped to spark creative thinking within
myself by taking this journey.

Third, I am a girl (duh) in a hobby that is male-dominated. Now, I am not male-bashing. But there are a couple of underlying issues
here.

One, the RPG community tends to be viewed by “outsiders” as
a bunch of nerds without social skills being dorks together. While some of that is true (I’m a nerd and a
dork), there is more to the community – and role-playing – than awkward people
trying to have a good time. [Aside --The
couple who introduced me to role-playing consist of a brilliant, beautiful
woman and perhaps the most socially adept man I’ve ever known. Hard to beat that for non-stereotypical.] So,
being a woman in this hobby, I was hoping that by being a female judge I could
draw attention to some products that might be more female-friendly so to speak. Did I succeed? Who knows.
But it was a thought in my head.

Two, when I applied to be a judge candidate, there were
zero other females who had done so. None. But about 15 guys had applied. Now, a couple of other women applied before
the end, but it really pushed my buttons at the time. I had hesitated about applying, knowing how
much work would be involved – and how seriously I take my commitments. But this basically pushed me over the edge
from “thinking about it” to “okay, do it.”
Does that mean I was the token girl on the judges panel? Probably.
But I will take that and run with it.

So this documents why I decided to apply. And low and behold, I got elected! (And totally yelled “Holy Crap” in a
restaurant full of people in Indianapolis when I found out.)

To be continued with a post about judging itself, and then
eventually discussion of the nominees (which will be announced July 13).

Thursday, June 21, 2012

The hard copy of this edition of Rolling Stone is sitting on my desk right now, looking at me.

Yes, he is a little person – which I believe/hope is the politically
correct term.

At first I wondered if this made me weird or something, but
after discussing HBO’s Game of Thrones ad naseum in the office, I realized I am
not alone.

Most women in fact find him very handsome.

He is happily married to a normal-sized woman, and they have
a daughter.

(If I said I wasn’t jealous, I’d be lying.)

In pondering this ever-so-important topic, I thought of something I'd heard at least 10 if not 20 years ago. IIRC, An Asian actress was discussing race in Hollywood, and she said "I am just waiting for there to be a male Asian sex symbol." I believe it predated Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's release -- which probably made whichever actress very happy.

So, having a little person viewed as a sex symbol by many Americans - does this mean something good about people having open minds?

Friday, June 8, 2012

You know how some people fall asleep as soon as their heads
hit the pillow?I’ve never been one of
those people.

It takes me a long time to fall asleep.Often I read myself to sleep, occasionally
falling asleep with the light on and a book in my hand.

But about a month ago, I had a light bulb moment.

I love my Kindle fire.And it plays music.

I searched on Amazon, and found a few meditation tracks that
I can play on my kindle and fall asleep to.It’s incredibly helpful!

After buying a couple of “help falling asleep” individual
tracks, I bought a full album.

If you have a full
album of material, you can just hit play and nod off.The Kindle enters sleep mode after a few
minutes, so it’s not using a ton of electricity.And when the album is done, it stops playing.

I also bought a “white noise” album – the kind of thing you’d
hear at a spa.My cats aren’t fond of
the rain tracks, but it works well too.

Audio books could probably also be used in this way, though
I think I’d get caught up in the story and not fall asleep.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

I know not everyone is as fortunate as I am to have a good
relationship with their siblings.And no,
it’s not like I fell out of the womb idolizing my sister.That took at least until I was out of
diapers.I think.It’s hard to remember.

But idolize my sister I do, and here are a few of the
reasons why.

Whenever there is a pet around, she narrates
what it does in a goofy accent.Typically cats are Russian (I think because of the Russian Blue we had
growing up), and dogs are a hybrid between Goofy and fictional “hillbilly”
voice.

I believe I smell some milk.Oh yes, there is definitely milk in this
vicinity.I wish I had hands
to open the cabinet and get out a bowl, then get the milk and pour it in.But I do not.I believe I will attack this piece of fuzz to express my frustration!

I sure would like it if you threw the
ball for me.Could you please throw the
ball for me?It would be ever so much
fun.Or you could pet me if you
like.Or maybe I will just lay down
here.Hold on, let me walk in a circle
first.And another circle.Okay, one more.Alright, now I can lay down.

When I was little, when we were at McDonald’s,
she would give me the pickles off her hamburger.The day she started giving her pickles to her
now-husband, I knew I was in trouble.(Don’t make that dirty, people.)

The summer after she graduated from high school,
we had just moved to a different state.Neither
of us had any friends yet.And despite
our 8-year difference in ages, she let me follow her around, hang out by the
pool, sleep in her room, and generally pester her until she left for college.

I love hearing her laugh.On occasions of extreme laughter, she goes
into this high pitched, hysterical laugh that I think dogs find annoying.But I smile just thinking about it.

She collects poorly translated items – usually
toys -- from dollar stores.Because they
are funny.My favorite is the Smart
Board, which instructed you to “hold pen erectly” to write on it.

I credit a lot of my spectacular taste in music
to her.Which is not really much of a
stretch, because it certainly wasn't my parents. We survived road trips with Julio Iglesias and Neil Diamond.

She reads more than I do, and that’s saying
something.

She is a wonderful mother and has a meaningful,
loving relationship with her husband.

So, she's practically perfect in every way. Like Mary Poppins. Except more awesome. And I will stop bragging now. :)